[arin-ppml] Reclamation of Number Resources

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <40F8E6CE-ECBE-4982-8C44-6DFD3456DC8F at arin.net>, 
John Curran <jcurran at arin.net> wrote:

>When I highlighted the the adoption of NRPM section 9 was in 2016,
>I did so via a link to the NRPM change log (which includes all of the
>versions of the Number Resource Policy Manual since inception) - 
>https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/nrpm/changelog/#nrpm-change-log

Just to put an end cap on the lengthy discussion we have had relating to policy
enforcement vis a vis the member entity designated as SL-206, I have verified
what John has said and thus, as I have already noted, the only error in this
case was mine.

That having been said, relevant historical WhoWas records indicate that both
the member's membership and the member's number resources were assigned /
granted in 2012.

By that point in time I believe that it was already apparent, or at least
should already have been apparent to all members of ARIN that ARIN's IPv4
free pool resources were headed towards exhaustion.  That ultimate and
inevitable outcome, when it did arrive, certainly did not come as an
unexpected lightning bolt from the blue.  It was both predictable and
predicted well in advance of the actual event.

Likewise, it seems to me that even back in 2012, and before, it could have
been predicted that as available IPv4 resources were dwinding towards zero
in all regions, there existed a finite and non-zero probability that out-
of-region interlopers might come into the ARIN region and attempt to usurp
portions of ARIN's remaining and limited free pool... which is arguably
exactly what did happen, at least in some cases.

My only point in relating all of this well-documented history is to provide
my only excuse for having failed to grasp that totally out-of-region entity
memberships were not expressly prohibited by policy within the ARIN region
until 13 July 2016:

https://www.arin.net/vault/policy/proposals/2015_5.html

It would appear that the ARIN membership, in its infinite wisdom, did not reach
agreement to prohibit outside interlopers from obtaining ARIN memberships and
resources until 19 April 2016, i.e. the date when proposal ARIN-2015-5 was
formally adopted.

I hope and trust that everyone can understand why this might appear more than
a little perplexing to me, given that IPv4 exhaustion in the ARIN region had
already been officially declared as of 24 September 2015:

https://www.arin.net/vault/announcements/2015/20150924.html

Offhand I'd have to say that it would appear that the ARIN membership finally
reached agreement to close the barn door only well after the horses had
already bolted.  This is not at all what I would have expected, but it does
seem to be the case, based on the historical record.


Regards,
rfg